Database Info

Noob Unlocks and Subsequently Kills Phone

A day or two ago I unlocked my ChaCha using the HTCDev.com instructions. I then used DooMLoRD_v4_ROOT-zergRush-busybox-su to root it. Everything was going fine until I apparently deleted one too many system apps and now my phone is in extremis.
The problem: As the phone boots up and reaches the HTC logo screen, just when the main interface should appear, an error pops up. It says:
Code:
Sorry!
The process com.htc.bg has stopped unexpectedly. Please try again.
[Force close]
When I close it, the HTC logo appears again as the main GUI is reinitialised, which leads to the same error popping up again, thus entering into an infinite loop.
I can just about manage to connect the phone to my PC as a disk drive, but it's not connected in such a way that RUU or unrooting applications can "find" it from within Windows, so if I'm to fix this it's gotta be from the SD card/Hboot.
Details:
* HTC ChaCha with the latest Android firmware.
* Unlocked and rooted, but remains S-ON (Superuser was installed and worked).
* Used Titanium to delete apps, but made backups and have them on my hard drive for safe keeping but can't access the phone in order to restore them properly.
* I was unable to restore backed-up system apps prior to this critical problem emerging, which I think is because my phone isn't "truly" rooted. I can apparently remove from but not add to the protected areas of the phone.
* I've tried flashing the device with numerous recovery ROMs and they all fail (wrong image, etc.). I'm having an extremely difficult time finding the original ROM anywhere and more importantly finding one which will work without the phone being connected to the PC at any stage of the flashing job.
* Factory resets and recovery boots don't seem to have any effect.
* It's a carrier-locked/branded phone, from Three/Hutchison 3G UK. I'm locked into my contract for another year at least.
* Before I rebooted the phone for the last time [prior to the beginning of the above problem] I noticed that my ringtones and related media were all gone and I was unable to download new ones even using third-party apps; the "unable to download sound" error was constantly popping up and when I received messages or phone calls the phone would vibrate but wouldn't play any tones.
* My brother and I spent the better part of 6 hours scouring the net and trying every combination of steps we could think of to try and resolve this. I wouldn't have posted here if I wasn't at the end of my tether and if I hadn't tried every solution I could find from others on various forums including this one, nor would I be so quick to reveal myself to be a deletion-happy moron to a forum of experts (I saw that anti-noob YouTube clip!).
Is there any hope of fixing this issue given my obvious lack of critical faculties?
Thank you for reading this.

You can always install clockworkmod recovery and from there a custom rom. Check the relevant thread, it is pinned.

OK,
don't panic. I almost thought you'd hard bricked your phone when modifying the NAND. This is a soft brick and ALL soft bricks can be recovered, they just take a bit of pain and suffering. Sometimes more suffering than others, but that's irrelevant.
Question, you say you can't restore system apps? How did you try? If a phone is perm rooted, it's rooted. Obviously a temp root is different to a perm root, but I believe this is a perm root as you can REMOVE apps from the system memory. If a root wasn't perm, every app would be sandboxed so no app, including titaniumbackup would work.
* Unlocked and rooted, but remains S-ON (Superuser was installed and worked).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
S-ON is part of HTC's snap on BL protection. The fact your phone is S-ON is now not that important, the BL is unlocked, thats what matters.
* Used Titanium to delete apps, but made backups and have them on my hard drive for safe keeping but can't access the phone in order to restore them properly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, important advice here (for future ref), you shouldn't go mad with deleting unless you've tried freezing first. Freezing allows you to recover by simply doing a factory reset. Most bootloaders (including HTC's) allow you to perform an emergency factory reset from there. You might lose all the **** on there, but you will have a working phone. You also need to be careful with TitaniumBackup, I'm sure you didn't remove the obvious important ones, but the fact you lost access to your audio means you removed a sound/media package. Next time, google "HTC chacha, safe to remove" as more people root this phone in the next few weeks, safe to remove lists will appear. For SGS (my phone) there is a whole shared google doc with a list of system apps, and the consequence of removing them.
* I was unable to restore backed-up system apps prior to this critical problem emerging, which I think is because my phone isn't "truly" rooted. I can apparently remove from but not add to the protected areas of the phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can't restore a system app if there is a conflict. Try and identify the conflict.
* I've tried flashing the device with numerous recovery ROMs and they all fail (wrong image, etc.). I'm having an extremely difficult time finding the original ROM anywhere and more importantly finding one which will work without the phone being connected to the PC at any stage of the flashing job.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
By the sounds of it, you are using ROMs designed for CWM. If you are going to do that, flash CWM first. There are shed loads of tutorials. If you want to install the stock rom all over again, just download the stock RUU.
* Factory resets and recovery boots don't seem to have any effect.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
See above about freezing.
* It's a carrier-locked/branded phone, from Three/Hutchison 3G UK. I'm locked into my contract for another year at least.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Doesn't matter, you'll fix it, guarantee it.
* Before I rebooted the phone for the last time [prior to the beginning of the above problem] I noticed that my ringtones and related media were all gone and I was unable to download new ones even using third-party apps; the "unable to download sound" error was constantly popping up and when I received messages or phone calls the phone would vibrate but wouldn't play any tones.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
See what I said above.
* My brother and I spent the better part of 6 hours scouring the net and trying every combination of steps we could think of to try and resolve this. I wouldn't have posted here if I wasn't at the end of my tether and if I hadn't tried every solution I could find from others on various forums including this one, nor would I be so quick to reveal myself to be a deletion-happy moron to a forum of experts (I saw that anti-noob YouTube clip!).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you tried every combination of steps? You've clearly not tried CWM. I'm not suggesting that as a silver bullet (personally, I try to avoid CWM if I can) but it's the best way to give you low level access to the NAND so you could easily flash an OTA ROM, modded ROM or even return it to stock dead quick.

For a safe to remove list, check the Themes and Apps section.

skezza said:
OK,
don't panic. I almost thought you'd hard bricked your phone when modifying the NAND. This is a soft brick and ALL soft bricks can be recovered, they just take a bit of pain and suffering. Sometimes more suffering than others, but that's irrelevant.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Music to my ears!
skezza said:
Question, you say you can't restore system apps? How did you try? If a phone is perm rooted, it's rooted. Obviously a temp root is different to a perm root, but I believe this is a perm root as you can REMOVE apps from the system memory. If a root wasn't perm, every app would be sandboxed so no app, including titaniumbackup would work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In Titanium Backup I tried restoring the backups I made; the "Recovering Backup" notice would just hang indefinitely until I forced TB to close. This only happened with system apps. The backed up files are still on my PC hard drive from when I copied them from my SD card, but I'm not sure they're of any use at this stage.
skezza said:
S-ON is part of HTC's snap on BL protection. The fact your phone is S-ON is now not that important, the BL is unlocked, thats what matters.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ahhh, this is probably my problem then. I ignored most of the fixes and workarounds listed as [S-OFF] because I didn't think they'd work for my device haha.
skezza said:
Ok, important advice here (for future ref), you shouldn't go mad with deleting unless you've tried freezing first. Freezing allows you to recover by simply doing a factory reset. Most bootloaders (including HTC's) allow you to perform an emergency factory reset from there. You might lose all the **** on there, but you will have a working phone. You also need to be careful with TitaniumBackup, I'm sure you didn't remove the obvious important ones, but the fact you lost access to your audio means you removed a sound/media package. Next time, google "HTC chacha, safe to remove" as more people root this phone in the next few weeks, safe to remove lists will appear. For SGS (my phone) there is a whole shared google doc with a list of system apps, and the consequence of removing them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm disappointed in myself for being so haphazard in my deleting, I'm usually not that stupid but I think I was a little overexcited to have finally gotten rid of some of the bloatware that'd irritated me for so long haha. I was like "oh boy, I can save even more battery power and internal space if I just remove a little more!". Lesson learnt
skezza said:
By the sounds of it, you are using ROMs designed for CWM. If you are going to do that, flash CWM first. There are shed loads of tutorials. If you want to install the stock rom all over again, just download the stock RUU.
...
Have you tried every combination of steps? You've clearly not tried CWM. I'm not suggesting that as a silver bullet (personally, I try to avoid CWM if I can) but it's the best way to give you low level access to the NAND so you could easily flash an OTA ROM, modded ROM or even return it to stock dead quick.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As I said above I didn't realise I could make use of [S-OFF] materials so I didn't even attempt them for fear of making matters worse. I just now attempted to flash CWM and it hung on "parsing" which is what happened with previous flash attempts. If a flash attempt doesn't hang on "parsing" it parses for a second and then goes back to the main menu, apparently having no effect.
I'd be lying if I said I'm not overwhelmed by all of this; the tutorials I've read seem to assume a fair degree of prior knowledge that I definitely don't have haha. I hope I don't stretch anyone's patience here, but if you could explain it to me like a 6-year-old whose mother drank heavily during pregnancy I think it will help move things along!
Thank you for the thorough reply, much appreciated

Follow this to flash CWM, you need to do it with your computer and using fastboot, this is needed for S-ON phones.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1449681

dapaua said:
Follow this to flash CWM, you need to do it with your computer and using fastboot, this is needed for S-ON phones.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1449681
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately I can't do anything via my computer; my phone isn't "discovered" by the command line, unrooting tools or anything else. It does allow me to access the SD card as a hard drive but that's all it does. Obviously this wasn't the case before my problems started, because I used my PC to root and unlock the phone originally, but now the phone's boot process can't reach a point where it becomes receptive to the PC's commands. I don't know why it lets me access the SD card though.
Is there any way to do this without my PC being involved beyond transferring files to the SD card? If not, am I screwed? haha
Thanks mate!

Can you boot into the bootloader (Whith the phone off, press Volume down + power for five seconds)?
Then boot into it, move up with the volume keys and then choose fastboot.
Then follow the procedures in the link I posted previously http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1449681 (start from step 3). Fastboot mode should be recognized.
The fastboot binary is here C:\Program Files (x86)\Android\android-sdk\tools , if you installed the android SDK, which I asume you did.
Good luck, I hope this works!

dapaua said:
Can you boot into the bootloader (Whith the phone off, press Volume down + power for five seconds)?
Then boot into it, move up with the volume keys and then choose fastboot.
Then follow the procedures in the link I posted previously http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1449681 (start from step 3). Fastboot mode should be recognized.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dear CHRIST thank you for that - I didn't know about this feature, and it worked! I was able to connect to my PC and do everything I needed to. I used the command line to flash the CWM, then followed instructions for partitioning the SD card and installing a custom ROM. I feel like a real [email protected] I wonder if Anonymous are looking for any new recruits...
dapaua said:
Good luck, I hope this works!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It did - I'm back in business!! Thank you mate, if I could fellate you via WiFi I probably would. You'd have to be wearing some anti-virus trousers though, I'm not a slut.
Cheers!

PaddyM said:
Dear CHRIST thank you for that - I didn't...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Great news (I thought you already knew about the recovery menu feature otherwise I'd have mentioned it).
As I said in my reply earlier, every soft brick can be fixed somehow. Some are just harder than others. If I'm honest, it seems like yours was pretty straightforward once you got into the Recovery menu.
By the way, if you decide you want to return to stock, you can do that quite easily. Also, if I was you, do the freezing technique I suggested earlier and use the safe list that's available.
If you keep CWM, do a Nandroid backup. You don't have to keep it on your SD, but they are great for doing a very fast recovery. I can usually restore my phone in about 10 - 15 minutes using Nandroid.

PaddyM said:
Dear CHRIST thank you for that - I didn't know about this feature, and it worked! I was able to connect to my PC and do everything I needed to. I used the command line to flash the CWM, then followed instructions for partitioning the SD card and installing a custom ROM. I feel like a real [email protected] I wonder if Anonymous are looking for any new recruits...
It did - I'm back in business!! Thank you mate, if I could fellate you via WiFi I probably would. You'd have to be wearing some anti-virus trousers though, I'm not a slut.
Cheers!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm happy it worked. Let's hope WiFi technology improves in the future

skezza said:
Great news (I thought you already knew about the recovery menu feature otherwise I'd have mentioned it).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I knew about the recovery menu (the stock one, at least) but I didn't realise I could go into the Fastboot option and for the phone to then be recognisable to the PC, thus making it possible to flash via the command line. If I had known that I probably wouldn't have needed to post this thread at all haha.
skezza said:
As I said in my reply earlier, every soft brick can be fixed somehow. Some are just harder than others. If I'm honest, it seems like yours was pretty straightforward once you got into the Recovery menu.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah... I think if it happened to one of you guys you probably would have had it sorted in about 6 minutes. 3 days isn't bad for my first attempt though! hahaha
skezza said:
By the way, if you decide you want to return to stock, you can do that quite easily. Also, if I was you, do the freezing technique I suggested earlier and use the safe list that's available.
If you keep CWM, do a Nandroid backup. You don't have to keep it on your SD, but they are great for doing a very fast recovery. I can usually restore my phone in about 10 - 15 minutes using Nandroid.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the advice man, I'll definitely be looking into the Nandroid backup option, although I hope I've learnt enough from this experience to have no need for it
Thanks to everyone who posted here, I appreciate the patience and the tolerance of my noobery.

Funnily enough, I tried TitaniumBackup today and the original poster is correct. While you can freeze, remove apps etc, you can't return them. especially system. I've not tried any of the alternative install methods that TB uses, but it's quite interesting.

TB is a bit quirky, I think. The system apps won't restore at all, but sometimes apps that I've downloaded myself will restore and other times they won't (the "Restoring App" notice just hangs there indefinitely). I usually find that forcing TB to close and then trying again does the trick, but I can't figure out why it happens in the first place.

Im wondering if anyone else has worked out a good configuration that will allow it to work every time?

[Q] What causes a phone to brick?

This is coming from an apprehensive stock HTC Sensation user. I long to have AOSP ICS or CM9, but I must have a 100% success rate. I just can't mess things up, as there is no time to have the phone down for even an hour.
So what causes them to brick? I hear you all say to follow the directions, but what if they aren't clear? It's like when you try to teach someone something you have done for a long time; there are things that you just assume you do that are not spoken of.
What are things that are always assumed when you are in the process of rooting and changing ROMs? Trying a new kernel? (For instance, always superwipe here, but only a dalvik there...)
Thank you very much.

The directions dont leave out any steps. The guides are very thorough.
Bricking is caused basically when you screw up the ability of the phone to boot into the bootloader or accept commands from a computer. Many other things will prevent the phone from working, but other stuff is usually easily fixed. The big problems are caused by something going wrong while the bootloader is being altered. If you kill the bootloader, there is no bootloaderrr to get to where you can fix things.
But on the sensatio you almost have to try to do that by doing something stupid like pulling the battery while the bootloader is being modified. The software you use to root this phone is fairly idiot proof and does all the work for you.
However.....the first time you root a phone you will go really slowly (as you should) and your down time will be at least an hour from the time you first start to the time when you have a working phone again.
It can be done in as little as 15 minutes, but for your first time you will be super meticulous about everything and itll take an hour.
Sent from a rebel ship by storing the message in an R2 unit. (Help me, XDA. You're my only hope)

Honestly, just don't mess up any commands in revolutionary.io - seriously, double, triple, then quadruple check those commands - those who are inexperienced in command line tend to miss a thing or two.
Then, if for whatever reason you have to update the firmware, make sure you flash the right thing, and make sure you don't pull the battery while you're doing it.
Those two things should give you that 100% success rate, then again, nothing's ever 100% certain.
What are things that are always assumed when you are in the process of rooting and changing ROMs? Trying a new kernel? (For instance, always superwipe here, but only a dalvik there...)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When changing roms, wipe data + cache. If you want, you can also wipe system and boot but it's not necessary. When flashing a kernel, wipe cache + dalvik cache. When it comes to rooting and what not in general, anything you flash in recovery is 100% safe. As in, worst case scenario, you'll have to reinstall your current rom. However, you'll never accidentally flash something from recovery that will kill your bootloader. Think of it like so:
BOOTLOADER > RECOVERY > ROM
The bootloader is the lowest level interaction you have. It's like your PCs BIOS. Recovery is kind of like a mini OS that can change the main OS. The rom is the OS you have installed.

Oh man, you guys are great! Starting to lose my anxiety about rooting now...
In what cases would you be altering the bootloader, or have the opportunity to corrupt it?
When you have a file you want, do you always flash it? To where? What files need to be under /root? I have heard of flashable zip files; flashable as opposed to what?
What is the best method of data backup (Besides a full nandroid)? Do you recommend Titanium Backup (Pro)? Does it always work? Is this a smarter alternative?
I really do apologize for the amount of questions. I want to be totally confident of knowledgeable of what I am doing.
Much thanks!

Titanium is great. Use is.
You will modify the bootloader during thevs off process. (Takes just seconds)
You may have to downgrade the bootloader if you have version 1.27.
Dont use the htc unlocker. Use revolutionary (search for more details)
Flashable zips are what you will use to install roms and kernels. You will install these from the recovery module.
The bootloader is where you will install new firmware or radios.
Sent from a rebel ship by storing the message in an R2 unit. (Help me, XDA. You're my only hope)

forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1192300
Everything you need to know.
But use 4ext instead of Clockwork when you are done. (Simple market download)
Sent from a rebel ship by storing the message in an R2 unit. (Help me, XDA. You're my only hope)

Thank you so much Skipjacks! I plan on using 4ext if I root. So, when would there be non-flashable zip files? I have heard people say "I'll wait until their is a flashable zip file". So what is the difference? (I hope I have enough thanks left to thank you after this. )

need help. my sdcard is not mounted

so i installed the cm9 alpha, restored stuff via titanium backup (only green marked stuff, and some whites) and i got into a bootloop. so i went into recovery and instead of going into clockwork i used the factory reset thing at the start. (probably the main problem this happened)
so now when i boot up my phone, i cant access my sdcard. what do i do?
ive checked around ADB methods on pushing stuff over, but naturally that didnt work. so im basically stuck here. PLEASE HELP

Jahrern said:
so i installed the cm9 alpha, restored stuff via titanium backup (only green marked stuff, and some whites) and i got into a bootloop. so i went into recovery and instead of going into clockwork i used the factory reset thing at the start. (probably the main problem this happened)
so now when i boot up my phone, i cant access my sdcard. what do i do?
ive checked around ADB methods on pushing stuff over, but naturally that didnt work. so im basically stuck here. PLEASE HELP
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try using the All in One tool in the dev section to reflash CWM Recovery, then keep trying to ADB push a stable ROM zip to your SD card. It might take a few tries but it does work. I saved my phone from a similar situation a few weeks back using the ADB push method.
Sent from my HTC One S.

thats what im currently trying to do. for some reason clockworkmod recovery just wont work. whenever i try to go into recovery, the phone just boots instead. and i tried multiple times to push over a rom, but it just wont get past 4mb.

http://i.imgur.com/o0WZm.jpg
this is what happens.
keep in mind i had to scratch the whole using clockwork and used the other recovery instead. that atleast lets me get to recovery. but as you can see, it wont even push over 4mb out of the 137mb of the newest cm9 build.
let me explain what im doing, im following this guide (i dont quite understand what he means with the first part "flash your recovery back to stock" i just assumed he meant to reinstall the recovery, so tell me if i did something wrong here) http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=25557817#post25850720
and im also looking in the how to push a rom with adb thread aswell. i feel like im doing the right thing here, and dont know what else to do. this is getting frustrating. a phone with no memory isnt all that enjoyable

Jahrern said:
http://i.imgur.com/o0WZm.jpg
this is what happens.
keep in mind i had to scratch the whole using clockwork and used the other recovery instead. that atleast lets me get to recovery. but as you can see, it wont even push over 4mb out of the 137mb of the newest cm9 build.
let me explain what im doing, im following this guide (i dont quite understand what he means with the first part "flash your recovery back to stock" i just assumed he meant to reinstall the recovery, so tell me if i did something wrong here) http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=25557817#post25850720
and im also looking in the how to push a rom with adb thread aswell. i feel like im doing the right thing here, and dont know what else to do. this is getting frustrating. a phone with no memory isnt all that enjoyable
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I used this thread to salvage my phone:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1667929
I followed the instructions to the letter, and got the ROM pushed on the third try. I reflashed and was back in business.
Sent from my HTC One S.

i tried that one aswell, but since my sdcard is not mountable, "- Ensure in Recovery that your phone shows "Unmount /sdcard/" and "Unmount /system/" (If they do not show this automatically, just press each one once respectively as pressing just toggles Mount and Unmount) " wont work for me. and it says that the file has to be in tools instead of permanent-tools, and that also did not work for me. ive tried basically everything up until now. theres still one thing i dwell on, and that is to flash to stock recovery. i dont know where to find that for a Norwegian Telenor handset. i can find the t-mobile one, but thats pretty much it

I had the same problem what I did was, I went to fastboot locked my hboot, "fastboot oem lock" and flashed original RUU in fastboot. RUU you cam find in development section. But first you have to lock your hboot.
Sent from my HTC One S

kaiser347 said:
I had the same problem what I did was, I went to fastboot locked my hboot, "fastboot oem lock" and flashed original RUU in fastboot. RUU you cam find in development section. But first you have to lock your hboot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i have to admit i have no idea what you mean here. im not pro at this, so i honestly didnt understand much of that. RUU is also something i dont "quite" understand what it. i think it is the OS itself or something.

i have no idea what i did, but i think i just solved my problem without even knowing why:s i just did the same **** over and over again. and i didnt push over anything. i just decided to "screw this, turn that phone on" went to storage and there the sd card was for some unexplainable reason. now i dont have any of my stuff though, that kinda sux

Jahrern said:
i have no idea what i did, but i think i just solved my problem without even knowing why:s i just did the same **** over and over again. and i didnt push over anything. i just decided to "screw this, turn that phone on" went to storage and there the sd card was for some unexplainable reason. now i dont have any of my stuff though, that kinda sux
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Looks like you found out for yourself; I was going to say that you may have to reboot your recovery a few times before the SD card shows up. I think I had to reboot CMW four or five times before it showed. After that, I was golden. Well, after pushing the ROM zip twice, that is. Make sure you always have a back up or ROM zip on the SD card from now on. It sucks that you may have to resort to a blank slate, but it's better than being stuck with a $500 paperweight!
Sent from my HTC One S.

i actually had a backup, and 2 roms on my sdcard, but that obviously didnt help from now on i will keep a backup on my computer aswell as on the sdcard. if i could ever get my stock backup back that would help. looks like im not gonna have a stock backup anymore. anyone redirect me to some place i can find that just in case i ever need to revert back to stock? Norwegian Telenor based phone if that is info you needed to redirect me. thanks for all the replies guys

[Q] SOLVED: Help - KitKat upgrade from stock... ish.

So, I did a stupid thing this morning. I spent the last, probably, five hours backing up all of my apps and data from my TF300, and once that was all done, I wiped the data on my tablet. "What makes that stupid?" What makes that stupid is, it was a miracle that I ever actually managed to root this thing in the first place, and now, I don't know a) if it's still rooted (I doubt it), and b) if I'm even mentally capable of rooting it again (I doubt it).
So, here's my situation, and if someone could just dumb down the steps for me and point me in the right direction, that's all I need. I got my tablet, I don't know, probably early 2012. I can tell you that the tablet is on ICS 4.0.3, and the build number is 9.4.3.29-20120511. It's also unlocked, I don't know if that needed to be mentioned. Now, things are better since I wiped the data on this mother, but ICS, on this tablet in particular, is slow as balls, and I'm done with it, I want KitKat. But I am so far beyond lost after what I did that if I try to work my own way out of it, I'm going to brick this thing.
I wiped the data because I was trying to do something involving the Fastboot menu or something like that. Whenever I selected the USB icon and hit up on the volume strip, the tablet just locks cold. I figured whatever caused that, would probably go away with a data wipe. It didn't. So now my data's gone, my apps are gone, my tablet's not rooted anymore, I have no idea how to get to KitKat, I can't sleep at night, it burns when I pee... let's focus on the tablet stuff for now, I'm signed up to some forums for the other stuff.
I know most of the people that read this topic will be inclined to say, "You're an idiot, read this, this, and this, and take care of it yourself." I know I'm Androidiot, and I'm humbly asking for help. Again, I'm just petrified of following the wrong topic and ruining the whole thing, so if someone could tell me how I'd go about upgrading my tablet from stock ICS to KitKat, I'd appreciate the hell out of it.

Just a little bump, not too big... no love for Tim?

Normally, you need to install the latest stock ROM from ASUS in order to recover a functional device & by the way upgrade your bootloader.
Things done, you can proceed to install recovery and kitkat.
Better explanations here : http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=53738192&postcount=2

zlazaar said:
Normally, you need to install the latest stock ROM from ASUS in order to recover a functional device & by the way upgrade your bootloader.
Things done, you can proceed to install recovery and kitkat.
Better explanations here : http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=53738192&postcount=2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you, Zlazaar!
Well, it seems that after my device was wiped, it still didn't remove CWM as a bootloader or whatever, I don't know what I'm saying. When I hold down the power and volume down buttons, I could wait like ten seconds for fastboot, or I could tap vol up to enter the "RCK" menu. I don't know what that means. But I go into it, and I'm at the CWM menu, I think it was 5.5.0.4. You probably know better than me if I need to do anything further than that with CWM, but I should be good on that, right?
I'm almost going to go to the sites that you mentioned to download files and get more information on how to use it all. I appreciate your help, because without it, I'm sitting on an unrooted stock ROM with only most of my apps, because oh yeah, like 70 apps forgot to transfer with that backup I did... so, whoopee.
Thank you again, buddy!

The goal is kitkat, right ?
So, in order to get it you need 2 important things :
1- The latest bootloader, yours can't handle kitkat.
2- a custom recovery supporting kitkat, i.e i'm using TWRP 2.7.1.0 (link in my signature), your CWM is outdated.
The only way i know to update the bootloader is to flash Stock ROM via fastboot as described in tutorial.

I got some really stupid questions... apparently it's been entirely too long since I've messed with any of this.
What's a bootloader? I know mine's unlocked, but I didn't know there were versions of it. Is it the blob file I got from Asus?
And I have my tablet hooked up to my PC, it's on the fastboot menu wait for input from USB. When I go to the command prompt, I've tried to push TWRP to the device, but when I start a command with "adb push," it just tells me that it doesn't know what to do with that command. Same thing happened with fastboot, but then I realize I didn't have fastboot installed, so I tried to install it and it complained about a missing dll file on my computer, and I think I'm about ready to give up. lol

Here is the driver : Universal Naked Driver
After install, you can use fastboot and complet other steps.

Tim 13 said:
I got some really stupid questions... apparently it's been entirely too long since I've messed with any of this.
What's a bootloader? I know mine's unlocked, but I didn't know there were versions of it. Is it the blob file I got from Asus?
And I have my tablet hooked up to my PC, it's on the fastboot menu wait for input from USB. When I go to the command prompt, I've tried to push TWRP to the device, but when I start a command with "adb push," it just tells me that it doesn't know what to do with that command. Same thing happened with fastboot, but then I realize I didn't have fastboot installed, so I tried to install it and it complained about a missing dll file on my computer, and I think I'm about ready to give up. lol
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok Tim so the GOAL IS: 4.4 KITKAT CORRECT?
This is the process overview. This is a review.
Step 1 Upgrade the bootloader. Why? Inorder to flash a 4.4 rom you need a Jelly Bean 4.2 bootloader. How? Do as zlazarr suggests by flashing the lastest stock version V10.6.1.27.5 on your tf300t. Flashing the latest stock rom will update your bootloader. And here's another helpful guide.
http://www.theandroidsoul.com/how-to-restore-asus-transformer-tf300t-back-to-stock/ Remember that the SKU has to match!
Step 2 Follow this guide.
http://www.transformerforums.com/fo...nstall-roms-tf300-jelly-bean-kitkat-roms.html
It guides you on how to unlock your bootloader which you already have and it shows you how to install twrp. After installing twrp MAKE A BACKUP!
NOTE: If using the command method on the link fails repetitively use the app rashr to install the twrp version in the link
Step 3 Upgrade twrp to vr 2.7.0.0 or higher. Refer to step 2 link on the post about 4.4 kitkat.
Step 4 Install a 4.4 kk rom. I recomend the lastest snapshot of Cyanogen Mod 11. The download is on their wiki.
And then your done! Don't give up! The hardest part I find is using the command prompt! Look for work arounds. AND SEARCH FOR METHODS!
Goodluck

b..c said:
Ok Tim so the GOAL IS: 4.4 KITKAT CORRECT?
This is the process overview. This is a review.
Step 1 Upgrade the bootloader. Why? Inorder to flash a 4.4 rom you need a Jelly Bean 4.2 bootloader. How? Do as zlazarr suggests by flashing the lastest stock version V10.6.1.27.5 on your tf300t. Flashing the latest stock rom will update your bootloader. And here's another helpful guide.
http://www.theandroidsoul.com/how-to-restore-asus-transformer-tf300t-back-to-stock/ Remember that the SKU has to match!
Step 2 Follow this guide.
http://www.transformerforums.com/fo...nstall-roms-tf300-jelly-bean-kitkat-roms.html
It guides you on how to unlock your bootloader which you already have and it shows you how to install twrp. After installing twrp MAKE A BACKUP!
NOTE: If using the command method on the link fails repetitively use the app rashr to install the twrp version in the link
Step 3 Upgrade twrp to vr 2.7.0.0 or higher. Refer to step 2 link on the post about 4.4 kitkat.
Step 4 Install a 4.4 kk rom. I recomend the lastest snapshot of Cyanogen Mod 11. The download is on their wiki.
And then your done! Don't give up! The hardest part I find is using the command prompt! Look for work arounds. AND SEARCH FOR METHODS!
Goodluck
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Okay, so I've started work on this finally, but I think I might be having some trouble. I flashed the latest stock ROM onto my baby and restarted the tab like the article said, but now it's taking a very long time to load. I don't know if it's supposed to be taking this long, considering I'm pretty sure it wiped the data on it (flashing a ROM wipes data, doesn't it?), so I'd assume that removing the weight of those apps would make startup lightning quick.
I have the ASUS logo and the spinny circle. And it's just spinning and spinning and spinning and spinning. Is this a problem?
I'm going to let it spin spin spin spin spin for like five more minutes, and then I might go cry for a while.
EDIT: I cried too soon, it loaded for a long time then came to a menu that says "Android is upgrading..." and it's optimizing the apps, or apptimizing, that were apparently NOT wiped when I flashed a new ROM. lol, so I'm back on track. So far, so good. Thank you for the detailed guide, I appreciate it!
Further edit: And I'm also done rooting and flashing to KK 4.4. Thank you for dumbass-proofing the process for me, it is incredibly highly appreciated. I didn't kill my tablet!

Tim 13 said:
Okay, so I've started work on this finally, but I think I might be having some trouble. I flashed the latest stock ROM onto my baby and restarted the tab like the article said, but now it's taking a very long time to load. I don't know if it's supposed to be taking this long, considering I'm pretty sure it wiped the data on it (flashing a ROM wipes data, doesn't it?), so I'd assume that removing the weight of those apps would make startup lightning quick.
I have the ASUS logo and the spinny circle. And it's just spinning and spinning and spinning and spinning. Is this a problem?
I'm going to let it spin spin spin spin spin for like five more minutes, and then I might go cry for a while.
EDIT: I cried too soon, it loaded for a long time then came to a menu that says "Android is upgrading..." and it's optimizing the apps, or apptimizing, that were apparently NOT wiped when I flashed a new ROM. lol, so I'm back on track. So far, so good. Thank you for the detailed guide, I appreciate it!
Further edit: And I'm also done rooting and flashing to KK 4.4. Thank you for dumbass-proofing the process for me, it is incredibly highly appreciated. I didn't kill my tablet!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi Tim13,
I'm glad to hear that everything went well and my guide helped you!:good: And to answer your question flashing doesn't wipe your data. You have to manually wipe it. And lol:laugh::good: that you didn't kill your tab. I hope you find your tab faster and useful again!

It's just as slow and useless as it was. But honestly, the flashing process was fun, and I learned from it. Plus, TWRP and Cyanogen mod are awesome, and now I know that. lol

Great to see you up and running @Tim 13 :good:
Can you add SOLVED to the thread title
Thx Josh

No, I'm not gonna do that.
I'm just kidding. You're all right, darling. :good:
Edit: Actually, not being a douche, I can't figure out how to edit the thread title. I went to edit the first post and I can't change the title of the post... I'm gonna look around for how to do it a bit more but after that I'm gonna go to bed.
DOUBLE EDIT: Got it, as you can see. Thanks to all that helped out!

Kyocera Brigadier screen black with back light.

I bought a new Brigadier off ebay. Phone is new and never used. The build date was July 2014 and KK 4.4.2. I should have paid more attention to the numbers. After the KK update my phone boots up but does not show anything after the Kyocera screen. It is black with the back light.
This is what I did. I put my SIM card in the phone to check that I can activate it. Then while I was testing out the phone. It downloaded the first update. I do not remember what the number is. The phone had never been used. It was new. I might be able to look it up for update history on big reds site. I did not do the do the update. After seeing it was done. I turned it off and put the SIM card backing the Turbo. After doing some research on rooting. I found that Kingroot (5.0.4) is best, then found this app I can use to remove Kingroot. Last night I was playing more with the phone and then rooted it too. I rebooted it, hotspot my turbo, downloaded root checker, confirmed root, then undated. Phone is at 80% life. Phone shut off and then I let it do its thing. When I came back, the screen is black with the back light on only. I can touch the screen and feel/hear the vibration. I can soft boot, hard boot, and reboot into stock recovery. I did a factory wipe after I read in how to boot stock recovery. Yes, did nothing. I do know that KK updates can kill your phone. My Droid HD maxx is dead. On that phone, the led light lights green up and the computer does make a sound when connected but does not show it. I have no idea if this has a rsd lite and file to flash. I did not change anything in the system at all. I did not think that Kingroot would mess with my phone if I did the ota. I would then buy this app and remove it. I was waiting for internet to be installed today to further mess with my phone before using it. I do not know how to pull info off my phone.

I know more about Motorola Droid phones. This is phone is new to me. I did do a lot of research out there and mainly on XDA. I have the option to return the phone for a full refund. I would like to see if I can fix the phone before hand. I have till this weekend to send it back.

Claps1775 said:
I bought a new Brigadier off ebay. Phone is new and never used. The build date was July 2014 and KK 4.4.2. I should have paid more attention to the numbers. After the KK update my phone boots up but does not show anything after the Kyocera screen. It is black with the back light.
This is what I did. I put my SIM card in the phone to check that I can activate it. Then while I was testing out the phone. It downloaded the first update. I do not remember what the number is. The phone had never been used. It was new. I might be able to look it up for update history on big reds site. I did not do the do the update. After seeing it was done. I turned it off and put the SIM card backing the Turbo. After doing some research on rooting. I found that Kingroot (5.0.4) is best, then found this app I can use to remove Kingroot. Last night I was playing more with the phone and then rooted it too. I rebooted it, hotspot my turbo, downloaded root checker, confirmed root, then undated. Phone is at 80% life. Phone shut off and then I let it do its thing. When I came back, the screen is black with the back light on only. I can touch the screen and feel/hear the vibration. I can soft boot, hard boot, and reboot into stock recovery. I did a factory wipe after I read in how to boot stock recovery. Yes, did nothing. I do know that KK updates can kill your phone. My Droid HD maxx is dead. On that phone, the led light lights green up and the computer does make a sound when connected but does not show it. I have no idea if this has a rsd lite and file to flash. I did not change anything in the system at all. I did not think that Kingroot would mess with my phone if I did the ota. I would then buy this app and remove it. I was waiting for internet to be installed today to further mess with my phone before using it. I do not know how to pull info off my phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The update you did was a stock update, correct?
You said the device was rooted and then you did the update, correct?
That's where you screwed up, you can't do stock updates on a rooted device, you have to remove root, have stock recovery and have an unmodified system partition before doing the update.
You should have done the update and THEN rooted the device.
Now just do a Google search for:
"How to unbrick (your model number)"
Sent from my SM-S903VL using Tapatalk

Droidriven said:
The update you did was a stock update, correct?
You said the device was rooted and then you did the update, correct?
That's where you screwed up, you can't do stock updates on a rooted device, you have to remove root, have stock recovery and have an unmodified system partition before doing the update.
You should have done the update and THEN rooted the device.
Now just do a Google search for:
"How to unbrick (your model number)"
Sent from my SM-S903VL using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes and yes. Okay. I know with droids when I was bootloader locked and rooted. I was fine updating. There was a change on loosing root. It's all about learning. I will try to find out how to unblock my phone. Thank you for the response.

Have you came across the ota .IMG file?

I was able to power my phone off. I connected the phone to my computer, installed the software, and tried the repair part. Failed on downloading. Version on my phone is 1.102VZ.

I found more info on xda refuring to the http://4pda.ru/forum/index.php?showtopic=597313&st=3680 site. I am not able to do anything with my phone now. Cannot get it to boot in recovery or even have my pc see it. The verizon apk sees it where I can still try to repair or update. That is it. I am going to send it back for a full refund and be done with this phone. Cannot spend weeks trying to fix this right now. Thanks all for the help.

Update. I got my phone into Fastboot. I was able to get phone into twrp recovery. How ever, I am not able to find a img I can flash to my phone then I will be able to use my phone. Ones I have found are twrp back ups that I have no clue how to flash. I downloaded Rom_5.1.1_3153LR_Modem_3153LR_E6782 and I hope to see if I can flash it or not in twrp. I still do not understand Android_SDK and how to use it. I am not sure if I can use twrp recovery from the Kyocera Brigadier E6782 Toolkit v1.2 I downloaded from the http://4pda.ru/forum/index.php?showtopic=597313&st=620#entry35662165 or not. All I am doing now is trying and seeing what happens. If anyone knows more please share.

I was able to flash the Rom_5.1.1_3153LR_Modem_3153LR_E6782 and my phone booted up and went into the optimizing but it is in Russian. I am further than I was. Need to find out if this is changeable to English and it all works. Yes, I do know that I will not flash anything than 5.0 now since the bootloader is locked or it can be unlocked with a code. Phone is up and running. I need a 5.1.1 US now.
It is not in Russian. It is in vietnamese. But I still need a clean 5.0 full rom.

Claps1775 said:
Update. I got my phone into Fastboot. I was able to get phone into twrp recovery. How ever, I am not able to find a img I can flash to my phone then I will be able to use my phone. Ones I have found are twrp back ups that I have no clue how to flash. I downloaded Rom_5.1.1_3153LR_Modem_3153LR_E6782 and I hope to see if I can flash it or not in twrp. I still do not understand Android_SDK and how to use it. I am not sure if I can use twrp recovery from the Kyocera Brigadier E6782 Toolkit v1.2 I downloaded from the http://4pda.ru/forum/index.php?showtopic=597313&st=620#entry35662165 or not. All I am doing now is trying and seeing what happens. If anyone knows more please share.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can use the TWRP backups by choosing the restore option in TWRP then selecting the backup file and it will restore the data in the file to your device.
Sent from my SM-S903VL using Tapatalk

Droidriven said:
You can use the TWRP backups by choosing the restore option in TWRP then selecting the backup file and it will restore the data in the file to your device.
Sent from my SM-S903VL using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I will try that. I have to get it into fastboot and that can take a few tries. The firmware I have on it has no verizon apps. It is a mod by someone. I am going to try original firmware 5.1.1 firmware. Downloading right now. it is a .rar file. Making head way witch is good. I am learning for sure.

I got into fastboot mode. I tried to go into twrp using the Kyocera Brigadier E6782 Toolkit v1.2 as I did before. Now, I am stuck at the Android screen and it will not go into twrp. Ahh.

Claps1775 said:
I got into fastboot mode. I tried to go into twrp using the Kyocera Brigadier E6782 Toolkit v1.2 as I did before. Now, I am stuck at the Android screen and it will not go into twrp. Ahh.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's because of your now locked bootloader, can't use TWRP with locked bootloader.
It's a little late now, you need to slow down, if you had done some searching to see how to use TWRP backups(the information is literally everywhere in every device forum here, it works the same for all devices), you would have been able to restore one of those backups, you'd have the device fixed and you wouldn't have a locked bootloader, that bootloader limits your options now, it leaves you only the option of finding the correct stock firmware.
Sent from my SM-S903VL using Tapatalk

Droidriven said:
That's because of your now locked bootloader, can't use TWRP with locked bootloader.
It's a little late now, you need to slow down, if you had done some searching to see how to use TWRP backups(the information is literally everywhere in every device forum here, it works the same for all devices), you would have been able to restore one of those backups, you'd have the device fixed and you wouldn't have a locked bootloader, that bootloader limits your options now, it leaves you only the option of finding the correct stock firmware.
Sent from my SM-S903VL using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I never knew it was unlock. On the Android screen it had a 1 at the top left corner and it is still there. I am trying to find the correct firmware and flash it. I am able to see my phone in the adb file I used to flash twrp on my Droids. I have done a lot of research and and the 4pda.ru site. I am sent a lot of pms out to XDA memebers and got nothing back. I have posted a lot and hope someone would replay. I am trying trust me. I flash the wrong one. If I brink the phone, O well. All I can say is I am not trying to give up. Not sure if I can flash a rom or a twrp back up in adb or not. I would like to sit and read up on all of this. Then I could have a better understanding and then may play more.
How can flashing the Rom_5.1.1_3153LR_Modem_3153LR_E6782 even lock the bootloader? Eventhing I read talked about it being locked. It says in the box, Failed (remote: bootimage: incomplete or not signed) when I try to boot it into twrp.

Claps1775 said:
I never knew it was unlock. On the Android screen it had a 1 at the top left corner and it is still there. I am trying to find the correct firmware and flash it. I am able to see my phone in the adb file I used to flash twrp on my Droids. I have done a lot of research and and the 4pda.ru site. I am sent a lot of pms out to XDA memebers and got nothing back. I have posted a lot and hope someone would replay. I am trying trust me. I flash the wrong one. If I brink the phone, O well. All I can say is I am not trying to give up. Not sure if I can flash a rom or a twrp back up in adb or not. I would like to sit and read up on all of this. Then I could have a better understanding and then may play more.
How can flashing the Rom_5.1.1_3153LR_Modem_3153LR_E6782 even lock the bootloader? Eventhing I read talked about it being locked. It says in the box, Failed (remote: bootimage: incomplete or not signed) when I try to boot it into twrp.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It locks the bootloader because when you flash the Firmware it upgrades to a different bootloader, one that is locked, it's coded into the firmware, it is intended to verify software signatures at boot, if the signature isn't what it's looking for it won't allow the software to load. Your TWRP, for example won't boot because it doesn't have the right signature, only your stock firmware has the right signature and there isn't a way to fake it. Your only chance of using TWRP is if your bootloader can be unlocked, not all bootloaders can be unlocked. It's a security measure installed by the manufacturer or your carrier to prevent flashing and modding the device, it's pretty effective and has become very common on a lot of devices since KitKat. It was implemented because they got tired of replacing devices due to the user modifying them and screwing them up, modified devices technically void the warranty but if screwed up enough they can't tell it has been modified, thus, they've been replacing devices that they weren't obligated to replace, they know this and are trying to put a stop to it.
Sent from my SM-S903VL using Tapatalk

Droidriven said:
It locks the bootloader because when you flash the Firmware it upgrades to a different bootloader, one that is locked, it's coded into the firmware, it is intended to verify software signatures at boot, if the signature isn't what it's looking for it won't allow the software to load. Your TWRP, for example won't boot because it doesn't have the right signature, only your stock firmware has the right signature and there isn't a way to fake it. Your only chance of using TWRP is if your bootloader can be unlocked, not all bootloaders can be unlocked. It's a security measure installed by the manufacturer or your carrier to prevent flashing and modding the device, it's pretty effective and has become very common on a lot of devices since KitKat. It was implemented because they got tired of replacing devices due to the user modifying them and screwing them up, modified devices technically void the warranty but if screwed up enough they can't tell it has been modified, thus, they've been replacing devices that they weren't obligated to replace, they know this and are trying to put a stop to it.
Sent from my SM-S903VL using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I messed up a great phone I was looking forward of using. I thought I had it all lined up. I read a lot and thought I understood things. Can it befixed? By Kyocera only I say. I wanted on 5.0 is while I flashed that rom. I did not know it was a custom one. I truly feel bad that I messed up a great phone. I am going to stick with Motorola Droids and HTC for me wife. I am up very late trying to figure this all out. I am going to stick with things I know even though I love a challenge and learning. Thank you for the help, yes, I should have slowed down but everything was going great. Live and learn.

Claps1775 said:
I messed up a great phone I was looking forward of using. I thought I had it all lined up. I read a lot and thought I understood things. Can it befixed? By Kyocera only I say. I wanted on 5.0 is while I flashed that rom. I did not know it was a custom one. I truly feel bad that I messed up a great phone. I am going to stick with Motorola Droids and HTC for me wife. I am up very late trying to figure this all out. I am going to stick with things I know even though I love a challenge and learning. Thank you for the help, yes, I should have slowed down but everything was going great. Live and learn.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When some, lose some.
For future reference, when you want to update or modify a device, try doing some research into what NOT to do or what can go wrong with that particular device and how to fix it if it does BEFORE you focus on what CAN be done on that device and before you actually do anything to the device. Cover the bases, ask questions, search for issues others might have had when they modified their device.
Remember, just because something is available for that device, doesn't mean you can use it. Things change from android version to android version and this stock firmware to that stock firmware for a device, such as whether the bootloader is locked or unlocked, among other possible differences that can turn things into a train wreck.
Android devices are all different and are not all done the same. What and how it is done on "this" device is not the same on "that" device.
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